Given:
Evan paid his mom back 9.60 which is 20% of the total he owns.
To find:
How much did he owe her to begin with.
Solution:
Let x be the amount Evan owns.
According to the question,
20% of x = 9.60
[tex]\dfrac{20}{100}x=9.60[/tex]
[tex]\dfrac{1}{5}x=9.60[/tex]
Multiply both sides by 5.
[tex]x=48[/tex]
Therefore, Evan owns 48 from his mom.